Tag: blogging

It’s January and it’s Monday. Beginnings make me feel like it’s time to hurry up and get moving. I’m a morning person (when I’ve slept well) and mornings make me feel that way, too. Hurry up! Go running and eat breakfast and hurry to your computer! So much to do! (Or on more embarrassing days – Hurry and get to your computer! What do you mean it’s dinner time? I haven’t even taken a shower, let along exercised or anything else!)

There’s so much to do because there’s so much to learn. I spent all day last Thursday just trying to read through some of the online group posts about writing and publishing and self-publishing, and then clicking the links to the great posts those people had found, which led to more links and reading more posts. Sheesh! How’s a girl to get any writing done?

But there’s a lot more to being a 21st century author than there was to being a 1950s author. Not only do you have to learn a lot, you have to do a lot. I took Kristen Lamb’s class on Becoming a Brand two weeks ago and now I’m trying to do everything I’ve been learning about. I’m following more people on Twitter and Facebook, retweeting and replying, and commenting on blogs. I think I did a week’s worth of social media in one day.

There are a gazillion great blogs out there and I read a lot of them last week! (This week, I swear, is going to be more about writing and balance.) Instead of trying to explain everything I read, I’ll just give you some short descriptions and you can decide what you can use.

Oh, and in case I lose you somewhere amongst all these links, let me remind you that Author Crush Month starts on Wednesday! Yay!! We love Author Crush Month, and we know you do, too! We’ve got some really great guests this month talking about their process, their craft, their journey. Be sure to stop by every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in February.

Also, we will have a special guest joining us on the first Tuesday of every month beginning in March. You’re going to love her! (You might even already know her!)

And tune in tomorrow as we welcome Janice Cantore to talk with us about her new book, Accused. If you remember, Janice has been struggling to sell her books with a small press but last summer signed a 3-book deal with a major publisher! Her new book releases February 1st. Woo-hoo!

Every now and then you have a week when you find all kinds of great information and interesting articles. It’s been such a week for me. For instance, a few weeks ago I was cursing Microsoft Word (I really should try Apple’s Pages program since it’s on my computer) because it kept changing what I was typing. Elsa Neal and the Blood-Red Pencil authors wrote a blog “How to Stop Word Messing with Your Manuscript.” Great Stuff. And it looks like Elsa is offering a Word 4 Writers course as well. I don’t know anything about it, but now you have the link so you can check it out yourself.

Then I found a guest blog by Robb Grindstaff (doesn’t he sound like a wizard from Middle Earth?) on Helene Young’s blog/web site. Here Robb discusses the 3 Ds of writing this week – Dialog, Description and Despair. Interesting, huh? It doesn’t hurt that he starts out talking about how cool AVATAR is, the movie my husband worked on. 🙂 Looks like the article will be in three parts Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week, so take a look and see if there is anything you can take away from it.

The theme of Writer Unboxed that caught my eye is one I try to keep in mind fairly regularly. (And yesterday was one of those days I really needed to keep it in mind!) Have More Fun is advice you can’t get enough of in my opinion. Your joy is the reverse osmosis filter for your writing well. You need it to keep your well overflowing with fresh water. Hmm, maybe I’ll have to talk about this more later myself.

A friend of mine suggested last week I check out the Write It Sideways blog. I quickly found an article I liked on organization called “6 Organization Tips for Disorganized Writers.” Maybe you’ll find it useful, too. What I found most interesting is that the author, Suzannah, is very organized at work but not so much at home, and her writing is somewhere in the middle. Hmm, something to think about in my own life. She’s also got an article called “5 Reasons Fiction Writers Should Blog” if you’re blogging or thinking about blogging.